KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Parker Meadows hit a broken-bat single in the 10th inning to give Detroit the lead, moments after Trey Sweeney had been given third base because of a balk, and the Tigers went on to beat the Kansas City Royals 3-1 on Tuesday night.
Tyler Holton (7-1) retired all six Royals he faced, striking out a pair in the ninth to force extra innings. Jason Foley took care of the Royals in the 10th, earning the save for the second straight night and 25th time this season.
“Pitching and defense, it goes together, and we hung in there in some really difficult situations,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, whose club has won 24 of its last 34 games, its best stretch of that length in more than a decade.
“It was kind of all hands on deck,” Hinch said, “and they responded.”
Riley Greene added an RBI single off Lucas Erceg (2-6) later in the 10th for the Tigers, helping them to remain 1 1/2 games back of the Twins for the final AL wild-card spot. Minnesota beat the Guardians earlier Tuesday night.
The Royals stayed 2 1/2 games behind Baltimore for the first wild-card spot. They are 1 1/2 ahead of Minnesota.
“There were some good pitchers on the other side that are trying to keep us from doing things offensively,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “That was a classic pitching duel the whole night.”
Cole Ragans allowed one run on four hits and four walks with six strikeouts over seven innings for Kansas City, and Casey Mize allowed one run on six hits and four walks while pitching into the fifth for Detroit.
“We found a way,” Mize said, “and that’s obviously the most important thing right now.”
Ragans struggled with his control from the onset, hitting Andy Ibáñez to start the game — Matt Vierling followed with an RBI double — and walking a pair in the fourth inning. But with a combination of groundballs and strikeouts, the hard-throwing left-hander was able to keep the Tigers from capitalizing on his mistakes.
Freddy Fermín also threw out a pair of runners trying to steal second.
Mize allowed plenty of traffic on the bases, too. But it was his defense that kept Kansas City from a big inning. The Tigers turned double plays in the third, fourth and fifth, the last after Mize had walked the bases loaded and Shelby Miller got Michael Massey to ground into the double play on the first pitch he threw.
Miller loaded the bases again in the sixth but got Tommy Pham to pop out and end the inning.
“Shelby bailed me out of a huge spot,” Mize said. “Our team is just resilient and that’s what is important.”
WONDERFUL WITT
